Marketplace Morning Report for Friday, August 3, 2012

Today, the Labor Department will tell us how many jobs were created in the U.S. in July, and what the new unemployment rate is. Here in the U.S., women represent almost half of the labor force. But in the Palestinian territories, the number is far lower -- which is where Maysoon Oday comes in. She has started a radio station to get more women into the workforce. And this Sunday night, NASA's Curiosity Rover will be landing on Mars. The $2.5 billion mission will be getting some big time publicity, broadcasting live on the huge Toshiba Screen in New York's Times Square.

Today, the Labor Department told us 163,000 jobs were created in the U.S. in July, and and the new unemployment rate is 8.3 percent. Here in the U.S., women represent almost half of the labor force. But in the Palestinian territories, the number is far lower -- which is where Maysoon Oday comes in. She has started a radio station to get more women into the workforce. And this Sunday night, NASA's Curiosity Rover will be landing on Mars. The $2.5 billion mission will be getting some big time publicity, broadcasting live on the huge Toshiba Screen in New York's Times Square.

DirecTV is reporting its first-ever quarterly loss of customers. And it appears those customers are not flocking to the competition -- Time Warner Cable also lost subscribers for the tenth quarter in a row.

Today the world is watching us here in the U.S. The Labor Department is about to tell us how many jobs
were created in the U.S. last month and what the new unemployment rate is. It's seen as a key indicator for the health of the U.S. economy, which is still the largest in the world.

In just a couple hours we'll get the most important economic numbers of the month. The Labor Department will tell us how many jobs were created in the U.S. in July, and what the new unemployment rate is.

Maysoun Odeh Gangat, CEO of the women’s radio station NISAA in Ramallah, explains why there are fewer Palestinian women in business compared to other women in the Middle East -- and how that seems to be changing.

If you want to be surrounded by other earthlings as you watch NASA's Mars rovers land on the red planet, head for Times Square. The rovers, the space agency's biggest hits, will be live on the big screen.